Going Home
by Joolz13
Summary: Marius is troubled by the fact that the girl who saved is life is dead in a ditch without ever having a funeral. He tells Valjean of his concerns and with the help of Cosette they arrange a funeral for Eponine (Its better than it sounds I promise)
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS PORTRAYED IN THIS CHAPTER- THEY ARE ALL THE PROPERTY OF THE AMAZING AUTHOR VICTOR HUGO!**

"Young man"

Marius turned from gazing mournfully out the window to face the sound of his soon to be father-in-law's gruff yet gentle voice.

"Yes Monsieur?"

"I can't help noticing you haven't been yourself of late"

"Monsieur?"

"I hardly think staring out the window with a face that long is natural behaviour for a young man soon to be married. Tell what's bothering you my son, surprising though it may seem I have a lot of experience in this world"

Marius sighed, "It's nothing Monsieur, I miss my brothers that's all… and 'Ponine"

"Who is this 'Ponine?"

"Eponine Thenardier, you have met her before though you probably didn't know her name. She is- I mean was, a sort of friend. She died after jumping in front of a musket aimed at me- I can still remember the moment the light left her eyes as she lay bleeding in my arms, the look on her face and the feel of her last breath on my skin. It haunts me"

After a moment of thought Valjean carefully replied, "She is the one who warned Thenardier when Javert arrived, no?"

"Yes, that's her. She warned me when Patron Minette attacked this house, it was her, not Cosette, you heard scream- her father made her pay dearly for it"

"Ahh I see. I do know the girl you talk of- I saw her death as I arrived on the barricade, I also heard her confess love for you. Might I ask if that is why you are troubled, do you love her and not Cosette? I will not judge you on your answer"

Marius' expression turned to horror at the old man's question of whether he had loved Eponine. He had tolerated her in most of his time knowing her and had only really began to think of the acquaintance as a friendship in the week before he fought, and she died, at the barricade.

"No Monsieur, I did not love her she was simply a friend- a friend from a family who did not love her. Courfeyrac and my other brothers had loving families even if they didn't approve all of their political beliefs. My brothers received honourable, loving and respectful funerals- I love my brothers but Eponine sacrificed the one thing she had left to save me and I can't help but feel that she deserves more than a blood soaked ditch with rats running over her corpse"

At Marius' words Valjean couldn't help but think of his own family- his sister whom he had left to die in the hellhole that is Faverolles, and her sons who had no doubt suffered either the same fate as either their mother or of their uncle; starvation or the galleys. Had he not been as useless a father figure as Thenardier was to his daughter? True Valjean had no choice but to leave and go to Toulon but he had the choice to not steal the loaf of bread which landed him there.

Jean Valjean had never truly known Eponine Thenardier. He had known the criminal side of her, the absence of many a purse followed by a glimpse of the scrawny gamine running away down the street told him that, but never the compassionate and helpful side that his future son-in-law spoke of.

The old man had had many an epiphany in his life and now, it seemed was time for another. He couldn't save his sister, he hadn't seen her in so long that he couldn't even picture her face or remember her name and she had surely died years ago, but he could still save this girl Marius had known- she wasn't beyond hope yet. She was dead like his sister, yes, but Monsieur Bienvenu had taught him that love reaches beyond the constraints of the earth and out into heaven or even hell. Eponine never knew love in this life, it seemed, so Valjean would see to it that she received love in the afterlife.

"Marius my son"

Marius, who unaware of the ex-convicts epiphany had gone back to gazing dolefully at a speck on the Parisian horizon, looked up into Valjean's weary eyes.

"My boy, what would you say to me retrieving Mademoiselle Eponine's body from whichever ditch she currently resides in and giving the young lady a proper funeral?"

Confusion spread across Marius' features then he slowly nodded "I'd say that's a brilliant idea- I can respect 'Ponine yet"

**PLEASE REVIEW SO I CAN IMPROVE MY WRITING FOR THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS!**


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS PORTRAYED IN THIS CHAPTER- THEY ARE ALL THE PROPERTY OF THE AMAZING AUTHOR VICTOR HUGO!**

Dusk had just fallen on the Rue de Valette and a stooped figure wrapped in a large yellow overcoat flitted in and out of the shadows- ocassionally ducking into a doorway as the National Guard marched past on their evening patrols through the streets of Paris; after the recent attempt at revolution the king was taking no chances.

At last the figure seemed to find what it was looking for and it bent to retrieve an object from the ground. The object was the body of a young woman- bloody and covered in dirt from its neglect over the previous week. In case you haven't already realised; the body was that of Eponine Thenardier and the figure carrying her Jean Valjean.

Valjean lay Eponine's body over his shoulder and returned back the way he had come until he emerged from the shadows to knock at the door of number 55 Rue Plumet, the door was opened a crack and the concerned face of Marius Pontmercy squinted into the street. On seeing it was Valjean, Marius opened the door wide to allow him in- grimacing at the sight of his friends lifeless body hanging mutilated over one shoulder.

"Why have you bought it back here?" Marius asked, disgusted at the filth which had just entered. Joly's hypochondria had rubbed off slighty on Marius as it had on all his brothers apart from, it had seemed, Grantaire.

"The funeral directors will not be open till morning my boy- it would look suspicious taking a body this badly damaged there at this hour"

"I guess" Marius sighed "but where shall we put her? She can hardly lie on the sofa"

"I will lay her in the back room and I shall sleep on the sofa tonight- Mademoiselle Eponine may be dead but I'm sure she would be most dissatisfied to be left in the garden were she still with us"

After the body was lain in the room Valjean called Cosette in and asked if she could find a dress that Eponine could be fitted in for her funeral. The girl returned with a pretty white frock, embroidered with flowers and rain drops, hung delicately over one porcelain coloured arm.

"I believe this will suit 'Ponine nicely" Cosette said with an air of sadness. "It's a shame we never saw it on her while she was living"

Marius and Valjean nodded their agreement. "Cosette my child, would you be so kind as to clean Mademoiselle Eponine up before we deliver her tomorrow?"

"Of course father" the former Lark chirped.

On entering the room, where Eponine lay cold and still on the floor, Cosette allowed herself to be consumed with memories- memories of her days at the inn in Montfermeil where a much younger Eponine had terrified Cosette. Cosette had once felt jealous of Eponine but now she felt only guilt for ever being jealous of the girl whose family had never loved her and who had left many of the marks which littered Eponine's frail and bloody corpse.

The Thenardiess had abused Cosette often but Cosette was not her child so really she had no obligation to love and care for her. But Eponine, Eponine was the Thenardiess' flesh and blood yet she had clearly undergone much worse treatment than Cosette had in her days as the Lark. The corpse was so thin that an anatomist could easily distinguish all the bones in the body without making one incision and the skin, which Cosette knew to have once been pale and delicate from Eponine's time as a fairly wealthy child, was now a brown russet colour from the blood and dirt which stained it and cracked and marked with cuts, bruises and the bullet holes which had ended the waifs short, miserable life.

Slowly, after much scrubbing, Eponine began to look somewhat beautiful- the mask of death causing her features to appear angelic and peaceful, something the girl had never achieved in life. Once all the traces of blood and dirt had been removed and the dead gamines hair somewhat brushed and neatened, Cosette dressed Eponine in the frock and braided her long, dark tresses before folding her arms across her lifeless chest and placing a bunch of roses there.

Eponine Thenardier could simply have been sleeping.

**PLEASE REVIEW SO I CAN IMPROVE MY WRITING FOR THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry I didn't update yesterday, I was busy. DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS PORTRAYED IN THIS CHAPTER- THEY ARE ALL THE PROPERTY OF THE AMAZING AUTHOR VICTOR HUGO! I BORROWED THE NAME SOWERBERRY FROM ANOTHER LITERARY GENIUS- CHARLES DICKENS!**

As the sun rose over Paris a cart driven by Valjean and Marius made its way through the narrow streets to Sowerberry's Undertakers, the corpse of Eponine Thenardier laid carefully in the back.

On reaching their destination Valjean left to enter the shop while Marius stayed watching over his late friend's body- which despite its obvious neglect, both in life and in death, had been cleaned up rather well by Cosette. After a few moments the shop bell rang and Valjean and Monsieur Valjean emerged, followed by Sowerberry's apprentice.

"I see Monsieur" Sowerberry said to Valjean. "My boy here will carry in the lady's body and we can set about finding a suitable coffin for the burial"

"Thank you" both Valjean and Marius replied.

Less than two minutes later, Eponine had been carried into the body of the shop and laid on the old wooden table in the centre. The walls of the undertakers were lined with coffins of all shapes and sizes which, along with the dim light seeping in through a crack in a shutter, gave the place a very eerie feel.

Sowerberry took out a measuring tape and began measuring the length, width and depth of Eponine's small body, muttering to himself as he went. After recording the measurements on a blackboard Sowerberry disappeared into the back room, emerging moments later with a book filled with sketches and prices of numerous coffin designs.

After looking through the book Marius chose a fairly simple design for the coffin of his friend- pentagonal shaped rosewood with a large cross etched on the front and the letters RIP. Eponine had lived a simple life and Marius was sure she would like a coffin which was simple, like her life, yet elegant in shape and etchings, like the life she had dreamed of.

After paying Sowerberry for the price of the coffin, and arranging a date and time for the funeral, Valjean and Marius left to return to the Rue Plumet and help Cosette find those who had known Eponine Thenardier in her short life.


	4. Chapter 4

'What'cha want?' an argot stained voice echoed through the gloom of the cramped alley in which Marius currently stood.

'Eponine Thenardier, Gavroche's sister- a work woman told me you knew her'

'Yeah I knew her. Knew 'Roche too till they went and got themselves killed fighting for some idealistic student dream'

Marius sighed as his friends were once more degraded by a hard, grubby face belonging to a child who looked no more than 8. The gamines of Paris really seemed to have hated the Revolution. Marius tried again;

'I was wondering Monsieur…'

'Who you calling M'sieur? Do I look posh to you?'

'I was wondering if you know where I might find Eponine and Gavroche's sister, Azelma. I've heard talk that she still lives with her mother and father'

'I might know where they went or I might not, depends on 'ow much you's willing t'pay'

'I can give you all of 100 francs and…'

'Cor blimey, I'd jump into the Seine for that much'

'Yes well, that probably would not be a good idea as then you would not be able to spend your money and I would not be able to invite you to the funeral of Eponine'

'Hmm, yeah. Hey what 'bout 'Roche? Don't he get a funeral?'

'Gavroche has already had one. He was good friends with a student by the name of Courfeyrac. Courfeyrac's family paid for Gavroche's funeral as they knew how much Courfeyrac cared for the boy.'

'That's nice of 'em why didn't they pay for 'Ponine's?'

'It seems that very few, apart from you gamines and the Paris constabulary, knew of the existence of Eponine Thenardier let alone that she died on the barricades'

'Fair point, anyways give me my pieces and I'll tell ya what I know'

Marius handed over a bag of francs and an invitation to the boy whose face lit up and suddenly appeared his age rather than several decades older. After watching the boy for a while Marius gave a cough and the gamine looked up saying;

'The woman's in jail heard she's close to becoming the Lords next door neighbour. Thenardier I've heard tell went to see the Changer and 'im and 'Zelma is off to America, the lucky sods- maybe crime does pay off'

'Thank you…'

'Pierre, me names Pierre'

'Thankyou Pierre now run along and get something to eat'


End file.
